Japanese Banks Boost Lending

TOKYO -- In a sign that Japan's economy may finally be entering a cycle of expansion, the nation's banks are beginning to turn on the loan tap.

After nearly a decade of consistent declines, lending by Japanese banks, excluding special factors, rose 0.2% in August, the Bank of Japan said, marking the first increase from a year earlier since the central bank started publishing this data in the current form in October 1998.